This will be remembered as the year that the company that gave birth to Silicon Valley, Hewlett Packard, split into independent Fortune 50 companies: $55 billion HP Inc. focused on PCs and printing and $53 billion Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Here are the top 10 Hewlett Packard Enterprise stories of the year.

Microsoft recently said it's going to be changing its licensing model for Windows Server 2016. While it's not technically a price hike, it's likely that some customers will pay more for virtualization.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman spoke with CRN about the new independent company's decision to make Microsoft Azure a ‘preferred’ public cloud provider, the relationship with Amazon Web Services, investor fallout and unrest around Dell's planned $67 billion acquisition of EMC, and Aruba's gains in the networking battle with Cisco.

Although many VMware partners say they believe the vendor's proposed joint venture with EMC's Virtustream business is a great move, they're wary of external factors that could slow -- or even scuttle -- the deal.

CRN assembles a number of lists and rankings throughout the year, including the Solution Provider 500, the Fast Growth 150 and the Tech Elite 250. CRN recognizes the 57 solution providers that earned a spot on all three lists this year with the second-annual Triple Crown honors.

With Hewlett Packard Enterprise officially launching on the NYSE Monday, Whitman speaks with CRN about the launch of the two new companies, the possibility of an EMC Pivotal IPO, and the challenges facing Dell and its planned $67 billion acquisition of EMC.

VMTurbo, a cloud management startup founded by former EMC executives, is emerging as a major source of concern for the virtualization vendor, particularly among large enterprise customers, according to sources.

Doron Kempel says selling hyper-convergence can be challenging for solution providers, but success will come from taking business from competitors that are unprepared or hesitant to embrace the technology.